The outlet lost two months of selling because it had to close as part of the state’s lockdown to combat the spread of the virus, and the business isn’t selling its products as quickly as it would have under normal circumstances because of the public health crisis and the poor economy, said owner Sandy Mendelson.
“Foot traffic is down because No. 1 people are out of money,” Mendelson said. “Buyers have disappeared right now.”
Mendelson, 77, said he’s certain he would have made the Sept. 1 deadline to vacate his business’s longtime home if COVID-19 hadn’t come along.
Mendelsons, famously known as the “first place to look for every last thing,” will still be around for several months to come. The eight-story outlet building now must be empty by the end of December, Mendelson said.
Meeting that deadline won’t be easy, but it must and will happen, he said.
“It’s going to be a lot of work,” said Mendelson, who purchased the 550,000 square foot building in 1980.
Dublin-based real estate development firm Crawford Hoying purchased the outlet building last year with plans to create a mix-use project.
The extra time Mendelsons needs to move out won’t impact the timeline of the redevelopment project because it is still in the planning and design stages, said Brent Crawford, principal of the firm.
Meanwhile, site work is complete for the AC Hotel by Marriott, which is a new hotel that will be built on property adjacent to the outlet building, Crawford said.
Crawford said construction on the hotel is expected to go vertical this fall.
Mendelson said he believes Crawford Hoying’s redevelopment of the outlet building will gain national attention.
“When this gets done ― and if it gets done the way I think they are going to do it ― this is going to be the talk of the country,” he said.
Crawford Hoying has helped bring hundreds of new apartments, amenities, restaurants and offices to downtown. The firm also built and opened the first newly constructed hotel in downtown in decades.
Mendelsons has held auctions and slashed prices to help deplete its inventory and empty its building. Right now, customers can pay $19.99 to fill up banana boxes with goods.
The global pandemic has created significant and unique challenges for the surplus and liquidation industry.
Mendelsons sells to buyers around the world. But many can’t or aren’t willing to travel right now.
Travel and border restrictions limit or ban non-essential travel between the U.S. and other parts of the world like Canada, Mexico and Europe. And domestic buyers also are hesitant to travel.
Consumers right now are counting their pennies because of widespread job losses, furloughs and pay cuts tied to the pandemic, Mendelson said.
Many companies have gone bankrupt and have liquidated their inventories, which has contributed to a flood of merchandise on the market, making it hard to compete for consumers’ and bulk buyers’ limited dollars, Mendelson said.
Most products at Mendelsons are sold in person because its selection is so large and diverse that a thorough search of the inventory requires an actual visit to the site, he said.
Mendelson said he thinks he will end up donating or sending to the dump some items he originally expected to sell because of weaker demand due to the coronavirus.
“You’ve got people who haven’t left their homes in five months,” he said. “It’s scary.”
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